After 18 years of service my 1998 Jeep has taken a rest. In its place is a 2016 Ford Edge. My love of exploring has not changed, and at the root of all my travels is the love of finding something new.
It's on these pages I've written travel logs to describe my wanderings.
I hope you enjoy the stories ...

Monday, April 21, 2008

Another Fine Day Caching in South Surrey

ABOVE: Old 1950'sh car in Cougar Creek Ravine

Had another great day geocaching with my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl, AKA Ken and Alan. In the caching world they are known as MrTJ and Bowser98.

In tow with us today was Bowser98junior (Chris), trwfan (Cam) and Brent, a friend of Chris and Cam. Brent came up with some of the best finds of the day, we gotta keep that kid around!

We spent the entire day in the South Surrey - North Delta area mostly visiting city parks and small neighbourhood green belts. That's something I've come to really appreciate about Surrey: they have done an excellent job of retaining green belts whether it be small house lot size kid's parks or large parks conisiting of many acres. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoy the trails through the forested areas, they start to look all the same on the camera and in one's mind after you have visited quite a few of them in one day. Hence, I do not have that many pictures from this caching trip.

We did visit a couple of places worthy of mention; one was North Delta Watershed Park and the other was Cougar Creek Ravine.

ABOVE: South entrance to Watershed Park

North Delta Watershed Park is exactly that, a watershed area comprised of a large artesian water supply from where North Delta draws its drinking water. The park is 153 hectares in size and is open to walkers, joggers, horse back riders and mountain bikers alike. The forest is dominated by a second growth coniferous forest; 11 kilometers of gravel trails wind their way through the forest.

The other noteworthy location we visted was Cougar Creek Park; we visted two locations here. The first was the west side where it is relatively level ground with minimal elevation drop. Here there is no sign of the canyon as the creek is almost at zero elevation; a short jaunt under the road and the creek empties into Burns Bog.

ABOVE: Lower stretch of Cougar Creek

As you walk up the trail you parallel the creek along a small soon to be overgrown trail in the flood zone. Except for the odd muddy spot the trail was in good shape as it had not rained significantly for a few days. The cache location is in the vicinity of a huge old stump from the turn of the century. That's one thing I love about the Lower Mainland; the huge old redwood cedar stumps that are still visible in many of the area's parks.

ABOVE: Way huge stump in Cougar Creek Ravine Park

The second cache in Cougar Creek Park was 3\4 of a mile to the east, in the infamous ravine area. The creek has cut through the soft clay of the surrounding hill side and carved a 100' deep wide ravine through the heart of suburbia.

While there is something you could almost call a trail down the hill, basically it's "point your nose down the hill and look for a nice sturdy tree to stop you if you become a run away" type of trail!

ABOVE: Cam carefully walks the trail along the edge of the ravine; One little slip of the foot and you're tumbling down 30 feet to the creek below

In the dry it's still a bit slippery; when the clay banks are wet and slippery it's almost as bad as being on ice!

ABOVE: Dumping ground for shopping carts, old cars, and anything that can be picked up and thrown over the edge.

Down in the ravine we found old shopping carts, an old wringer washer washer, numerous types of metal containers, and 4 old cars circa 1950s. It was kind of fun trying to guess the make of the car by the flattened shape of the body and the odd grill still visible.